2017 F1 season begins today in Australia

Ferrari had good results in the eight days of pre-season testing, and Hamilton predicted Vettel and former champion Kimi Raikkonen would have the fastest cars in the first practice sessions Friday and Saturday.AP | March 24, 2017, 08:28 IST

Melbourne: Faster cars and fiercer competition are the great expectations of the new regulations in Formula One, yet the championship outlook hasn't altered much ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton remains the hot favorite to win another title for Mercedes.

Hamilton won 10 GP events last season and was close to claiming his fourth drivers' title but was narrowly beaten by his teammate Nico Rosberg, who secured Mercedes a third consecutive championship and then retired. While Hamilton talked about wanting more drivers competing for the title, and even tipped Ferrari to be quickest this weekend, he's already lining up a victory he thinks would be unprecedented.

"I don't believe (any) team has won back-to-back through rule regulation changes," Hamilton said on Thursday during the first official news conference ahead of Sunday's race. "So that's our goal as a team. We're here to win. We're here to do what no-one else has done. I have every belief in my team that we can do that."

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel won four consecutive season titles from 2010-13 while he was racing for Red Bull, so he knows what it's like to be in Hamilton's position. He has no doubt who is favorite this season, regardless of the rule changes that dictated wider tires, greater aerodynamics, bigger fuel loads and increased downforce and which are expected to make the heavier cars faster.

Ferrari had good results in the eight days of pre-season testing, and Hamilton predicted Vettel and former champion Kimi Raikkonen would have the fastest cars in the first practice sessions Friday and Saturday.

Hamilton said he couldn't judge the pace of the Red Bulls in testing, saying they were 'quite far behind' and he didn't see many upgrades to the cars.

Daniel Ricciardo finished as the highest-ranked of the non-Mercedes drivers last season, winning the Malaysian GP and placing third in the season standings.